blackthornfaery's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Spoiler
incredible!! i felt so immersed in the story the whole time, and the food!! the food descriptions nearly rival red wall feasts! I just wish it didn't toggle between quite so many pov and don't quite understand why da tan didn't eat any of the orange tané brought to heal ead... surely it would've helped their efforts for sabran to wield magic with them? i was fully expecting the fruit to be the reason for her fever in the days before the battle.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Medical content, Pregnancy, Violence, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Infertility, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
doodlin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Incredibly rich and dense world, with a deep history which can be a lot to take in. The book moves quite slowly at first as it immerses you into its world and characters. It can be a little overwhelming at first but it does give you enough time to get acquainted before the real action starts. Each character brings a very different perspective to the world which gives you insight into how all these different parts of world work. My only complaint is the end did feel a bit rushed which is suppose was understandable since we were already 700 pages in but I think a bit of some middle fluff could have been cut down to allow more time for the climax and end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Spoiler
I hope Sab and Ead eventually got their happy ending. The end of the book left them in such a bittersweet place. It was understandable because a girl bosses must girl boss (haha) but still would’ve loved to see their cute sapphic happy ending.caoimhe9876's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Petition to make all high fantasy books 800 pages long
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Miscarriage, War, Torture, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
sohva's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
An epic book with a well-developed world. The atmosphere was full of magic, and the story was not getting boring.
The reason this isn't a five-star book is the characters. They were interesting and cool and all that, but I did not really feel their feelings. Too much of the interpersonal relationships was told, not shown - so when something bad happens to a side character a main character cares about, I am not entirely sure why I should care.
The reason this isn't a five-star book is the characters. They were interesting and cool and all that, but I did not really feel their feelings. Too much of the interpersonal relationships was told, not shown - so when something bad happens to a side character a main character cares about, I am not entirely sure why I should care.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Violence, War, Pregnancy, and Kidnapping
arcturus_b's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Violence
weareinheritors's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Incest, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, and Misogyny
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I’m frustrated because I liked a lot about this book - the world building! The queer love story! The way all the seemingly separate storylines came together! - but the way the author treated religion and politics was a huge miss for me. There is no way We could have had a much more interesting read on those two fronts.
Spoiler
anyone who was raised to believe certain thousands-years-old truths, let alone a queen and nobles whose entire existence is based on those truths, would believe that their religion is all a lie immediately. Similarly, all of the political leaders coming together incredibly easily to fight the Nameless One at the end, after thousands of years of political estrangement??
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
booksjessreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Genuinely don't even know where to start for a review of this book. Just. Wow.
This is my first high fantasy book and I loved every single page. Despite being initially intimidated by its size, I absolutely sailed through it because I was addicted. Every single page had me hooked. I have not felt the thrill of reading a fantastic book for a long time and it made me feel like a giddy child wanting to find out what happened all the time.
The writing is phenomenal. It has such detailed, yet comprehensive world-building and it doesn't feel forced, or like the author is info-dumping. Furthermore, the world that Shannon has crafted is just wonderful. There is so much lore in this world and it has been so intricately thought out. It felt so immersive and learning about the world was not tedious and only served as interesting to me as the reader.
The characters are so well thought-out and completely human, believable and three dimensional. There is great character growth and I think my favourite thing about this, was that despite being told from 4 different points of view, each character felt relevant and I liked them all. I hate it in books where you have multiple POV's and one or two feel irrelevant or they are just unbearable narrators. This never happened and the story was enriched from every perspective.
A sapphic and feminist work of art that has dragons in, I mean, what more could you want?
This is my first high fantasy book and I loved every single page. Despite being initially intimidated by its size, I absolutely sailed through it because I was addicted. Every single page had me hooked. I have not felt the thrill of reading a fantastic book for a long time and it made me feel like a giddy child wanting to find out what happened all the time.
The writing is phenomenal. It has such detailed, yet comprehensive world-building and it doesn't feel forced, or like the author is info-dumping. Furthermore, the world that Shannon has crafted is just wonderful. There is so much lore in this world and it has been so intricately thought out. It felt so immersive and learning about the world was not tedious and only served as interesting to me as the reader.
The characters are so well thought-out and completely human, believable and three dimensional. There is great character growth and I think my favourite thing about this, was that despite being told from 4 different points of view, each character felt relevant and I liked them all. I hate it in books where you have multiple POV's and one or two feel irrelevant or they are just unbearable narrators. This never happened and the story was enriched from every perspective.
A sapphic and feminist work of art that has dragons in, I mean, what more could you want?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
heatherinthenether's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
It was a slow start to the story - I found it tough to keep track of who was who or how they related to one another, and the fantasy names were clumsy to read. Using words like "carcanet" instead of necklace with no context to hint at the meaning, or insisting on "eight and twenty" instead of twenty eight feel really pretentious. The book does include a glossay in the back, but I don't want to work that hard to read a fantasy novel.
Around pg. 130, the story finally started to draw me in and flow more easily. I still had a hard time staying with it, and the action is interspersed with really long moments where not much happens. The characters are likable enough to care about them, but things just move really slowly through the first half of the book. I'm an avid reader and a writer by trade, and there were several complex words I had to look up (why make a book readable when instead you can use obscure synonyms?) So if you're into reading a book with a dictionary, this might be your thing. The casually revealed incest-adjacent relationship is as unexpected as it is unsavory and, it would seem, wholly unnecessary. It doesn't impact the story in any way, and comes at a time when you're supposed to be starting to understand a previously difficult character. It's very weird.
The namesake Priory, arguably one of the better parts of the book, plays a shockingly minor role int he whole story.
I really wanted to love this book as so many other people seemed to, and there are many things I did enjoy, but it just felt like work to get through it. I did think the characters were well written and complex, and that the dragon mythology was interesting. I liked the way the secrets of the Priory were revealed. Overall, it just wasn't for me, and now I have to decide if I'm willing to take on the even-longer sequel.
Around pg. 130, the story finally started to draw me in and flow more easily. I still had a hard time staying with it, and the action is interspersed with really long moments where not much happens. The characters are likable enough to care about them, but things just move really slowly through the first half of the book. I'm an avid reader and a writer by trade, and there were several complex words I had to look up (why make a book readable when instead you can use obscure synonyms?) So if you're into reading a book with a dictionary, this might be your thing. The casually revealed incest-adjacent relationship is as unexpected as it is unsavory and, it would seem, wholly unnecessary. It doesn't impact the story in any way, and comes at a time when you're supposed to be starting to understand a previously difficult character. It's very weird.
The namesake Priory, arguably one of the better parts of the book, plays a shockingly minor role int he whole story.
I really wanted to love this book as so many other people seemed to, and there are many things I did enjoy, but it just felt like work to get through it. I did think the characters were well written and complex, and that the dragon mythology was interesting. I liked the way the secrets of the Priory were revealed. Overall, it just wasn't for me, and now I have to decide if I'm willing to take on the even-longer sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Incest
jodean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Murder, Grief, Deportation, Blood, Abandonment, Death, and Confinement
Moderate: War, Sexism, Medical content, Infertility, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Drug use